Make sure it's looking in the right place for libhowl. Check /var/log/messages and see if it tells you where it was trying to load ti from, and make sure it's there. If not, try symlinking where it's looking for it to where it actually is...

Oh, if it doesn't say anything about it in /var/log/messages, check other logs to like /var/log/boot.log or maybe ~/.xsession-errors

Good luck,

hey thanx everyone ...got everything figured out..first time i changed permissions of libhowl and the whole thing messed up, but figured it out now, copied .xinitrc from root to /user/home, did a chown user /home/.xinitrc and set the permissions right...all working now...working out permission problems with individual progs as they come along..

Thanks Again!

ok got most of the problem sorted out..one pending : imwheel

imwheel & xmodmap works fine in terms of scrolling with the wheel but my five button intellimouse explorer's back and forward button doesn work(and it works fine as root)..

i changed permissions of imwhel(chmod u+s), but no success..

change the permissions of the /tmp/imwheel.pid file so everyone can write to it. (or specific users/groups)

Hope it helps.

it worked! u the man!

hm.. wouldn't it be easier to just type 'adduser'?

I am not much familiar with the commands that substitiute some of the GUI utitilities that require root privileges in ubuntu.

As I start the programs (e.g. Users and Groups), from the normal user graphical login (coz the root account is said to be disabled ...and i don't even think i was asked to set the root password), it terminates and closes itself.

Please help me make those GUI's worthwhile.

This absence of root and unknowing of it's password also affects, editing of some files in /etc or mounting of some win partitions manually.

i have formatted my linux partition and am taking my time to try a different flavor of linux. if someone has better ideas please suggest.

in ubuntu:

sudo passwd root

will create the root account.